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Big Green football gets little resistance from Colgate

Dartmouth wide receiver Drew Estrada pulls down a reception in the second quarter against Colgate at Memorial Field in Hanover, N.H., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019. Dartmouth was up 24-0 at the half.(Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

Jack Traynor, of Dartmouth, takes down Colgate quarterback Noah Rothman at Memorial Field in Hanover, N.H., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019. Dartmouth was up 24-0 at the half.(Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

Dartmouth quarterback Jared Gerbino passes in the second quarter against Colgate at Memorial Field in Hanover, N.H., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019. Dartmouth was up 24-0 at the half.(Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

Caylin Parker, of Dartmouth, runs for a touchdown bringing the score to 13-0 in the first quarter against Colgate at Memorial Field in Hanover, N.H., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019. Dartmouth was up 24-0 at the half.(Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

HANOVER — The Dartmouth College football team’s game with Colgate was expected to be at least a decent nonconference test of a squad that narrowly missed capturing last fall’s Ivy League title. Instead, the winless Raiders put up little resistance during a 38-3 loss at Memorial Field that was their first visit to Memorial Field since 2011.

Dartmouth led, 24-0, at halftime and dropped the Raiders, who played with their third-string quarterback because of injuries, to 0-5 this season. The Big Green, which piled up 440 yards of offense and allowed only 281, is 2-0 and opens league play on Friday night at Pennsylvania.

“Right now, we’re not a good football team, and Dartmouth is,” said Colgate coach Dan Hunt. The Big Green “had a great offensive scheme tonight, and its defense physically beat us.”

Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said his team’s play along the lines led to its domination and allowed various inexperienced competitors to get snaps. Forty-six Big Green players saw action.

“We had a lot of firsts,” Teevens said. “A lot of guys who had their first carry or tackle or played on their first kickoff.”

Dartmouth quarterback Jared Gerbino completed 12 of 16 passes for 193 yards and three touchdowns, and Derek Kyler connected on five of nine throws for 72 yards.

“That was a breakout game for him,” Teevens said of senior Gerbino, who’s primarily been a running threat in the past. “We’ve been talking about it, but people were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, sure,’ because we hadn’t actually done it. You spread the ball around, and it forces people to concentrate in a lot of areas.”

Said Gerbino: “I don’t feel as sore right now, not having taken a lot of hits.”

Dakari Falconer rushed six times for 49 yards, Zack Bair carried six times for 40 yards and Caylin Parker took nine handoffs for 39 yards and a touchdown for the Big Green. Bair caught five passes for 41 yards and Hunter Hagdorn, Robbie Mangas and Drew Estrada combined for 10 catches and each hauled in a touchdown pass.

Dartmouth got off to an inauspicious start when Nigel Alexander hit the scrambling Raiders quarterback out of bounds and the visitors moved from their 10-yard line to the 50 in one play. However, Colgate later turned the ball over on downs.

Dartmouth’s first drive ended with a 30-yard touchdown pass from Gerbino to a wide-open Hagdorn along the right sideline. The senior, who missed last week’s game with what was described as a hamstring injury, looked downright spritely in darting through several tacklers at the goal line. The first of Connor Davis’ five extra points produced a 7-0 lead six minutes into the game.

The Big Green doubled its lead to 14-0 with two minutes remaining in the first quarter when it drove 69 yards in eight plays. A 36-yard pass down the middle to tight end Mangas set up Parker for an easy, 4-yard touchdown run.

“As soon as we came off the ball that first play, you could tell (Colgate) was like, ‘These aren’t the teams we’ve been playing the first four weeks,’ ” said defensive lineman Jackson Perry, who led the hosts with nine tackles.

The hosts went up, 21-0, six minutes into the second quarter. A four-play, 69-yard drive ended with a 40-yard touchdown toss down the middle from Gerbino to Estrada. The quarterback, whom Dartmouth has worked feverishly to develop as a vertical passer, had several seconds to survey the field before he threw.

“It makes it an awful lot easier to move the ball down the field when you’re getting big chunks of yardage,” Teevens said.

Davis, who struggled on field goals as a freshman last year, kicked a 39-yarder as time expired before halftime. The Big Green trotted off with a 24-0 lead.

Colgate kicked a 27-yard field goal with five minutes remaining in the third quarter. Dartmouth answered when Gerbino rolled right and hit Mangas for a 34-yard touchdown pass and a 31-3 lead.

The Raiders drove to Dartmouth’s 3-yard line with 10 minutes to play, but the Big Green held on fourth down. Six minutes later, reserve running back Keegan McHugh plunged a yard into the end zone and the score moved to 38-3.

“I hope we sent the message that we’re the team to beat in the Ivy League,” Perry said. “I think we have the most talented football team, and I hope the other Ivies are circling us on their calendar.”

Notes: Attendance was announced at 6,122. … Tight end Jake Guidone, who had been battling a shoulder injury suffered last spring when he crashed his bicycle, returned to action on Saturday. Star cornerback Isiah Swann, who missed the first game with a hamstring malady, sat out a second consecutive contest. … The scoreboard operator had a rough night, twice displaying the wrong score. … Former Big Green football standout Tim McManus, an Ohio State medical school graduate doing his residency at Dartmouth, is in the midst of six months’ worth of Boston hospital rotations via a Harvard program. … A current display by the Lebanon Historical Society on Lebanon High football includes a 1951 football with the players’ names painted on it. Among them is one “I. Fountain,” indicating future and longtime Dartmouth football and ice hockey athletic trainer Irv Fountain. … Columbia University recently banned its school marching band from performing at football games because of a disagreement, ostensibly about funding. The group, like most others in the Ivy League, has long run afoul of its school administration because of questionable show content and comment. Columbia has hired a Staten Island high school band to perform at Lions gridiron games.